In passageways or platforms used to transport people and goods and specifically those which consist of belts formed by pallets, it is necessary to turn these pallets in order to successfully change the travelling direction of the belt. For example, passageways used to transport people in a linear fashion travel in both possible directions. In this case, when the end of the track is reached in one direction, the pallets of the belt should turn around in order to continue moving forwards in the other direction.
Up until present, this turn was carried out vertically, in such a way that the two forwards directions of the belt made of pallets were made at two different heights. In other words, a forwards outward movement is produced in one direction and at the end of the forwards course, the vertical turn is produced and the return is produced at a lower level.
Documents U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,959 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,976 show passageways or platforms for transporting people or goods, in which the platform moves forwards in one direction and at the end of the forwards moving trajectory, the vertical turn is produced and the platform returns in the opposite direction at a different height, in this case specifically at an upper height, although it is perfectly possible for it to return at a lower height.
Spanish patent application ES2294972, filed by the same applicant as the present application, shows a turning system for passageways or pallet belts of the above described variety.
These systems are disadvantageous in that quite a considerable trench depth is required in order to be able to house the entire system on two different levels.
A system which successfully and efficiently turned the pallets around in a belt was therefore desirable, which would thus prevent the disadvantages existing in systems pertaining to the prior art.